COLUMN
What a difference a year can make.
After the 2011 season, being an offensive coach for Marshall football wasn’t exactly a resume builder. The Herd stumbled to an average of 333 yards per game, which ranked 102nd in the nation. Marshall averaged just a tick over three touchdowns a game as the offensive struggled to find an identity. Fast forward a year and being an offensive coach is a ticket to a promotion.
Marshall’s offense surged to one of the most productive in the country average over 534 yards a game and 51 points per contest. So it was no surprise when Tony Petersen was offered the chance to run the offense a Louisiana Tech, another high speed, high scoring offense.
Now, Doc Holliday has a few options as to how he wants to tweak his staff to fill the void left by Petersen’s departure. Coaching the quarterbacks at Marshall is certainly a desirable position. Rakeem Cato will return for his junior season this year, coming off an award-winning 2012 campaign. Cato threw for 4,201 yards and 37 touchdowns and earned a plethora of post season awards including C-USA’s Most Valuable Player award. Meanwhile, waiting in the wings is the very capable backup quarterback Blake Frohnapfel and Gunnar Holcombe.
The most obvious option to replace Petersen is to promote within the coaching staff. JaJuan Seider has served as the running backs coach for Doc Holliday but was an All-American quarterback during his playing days at Florida A&M. Seider passed for 2,512 and 27 touchdowns. Seider already has a great rapport with the players and should have no trouble building on Cato’s performance last season.
It also seems natural the position would be an excellent opportunity to get Seider more involved in the offensive scheme. Seider is already building a reputation as an excellent recruiter and can further elevate his status by coaching one of the top performing passers in the country.
Even if you promote Seider that still leaves a hole on the coaching staff. That is where the recently unemployed Steve Dunlap could come into play. The idea of Dunlap taking over as Marshall’s defensive coordinator was shot down early on in the process. The Charleston Daily Mail’s Chuck McGill reported that Dunlap was not a candidate for the job days after the search started. However, it is not outlandish to believe he could rejoin the Marshall coaching staff in another role, perhaps as associate head coach and special teams coordinator.
No matter how Doc Holliday decides to proceed he has several excellent options to choose from. Although, if Marshall’s offense duplicates its 2012 production again in 2013 there will be schools courting The Herd’s offensive assistants hoping they can bring that scheme and success to their institution.